


up a rocky hill

by Musta_aurinko



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, priest hakuryuu and evil god judar au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:22:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24649414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Musta_aurinko/pseuds/Musta_aurinko
Summary: On a hill near Hakuryuu's family temple is the hidden prison of an evil god who has been locked up there for generations. Hakuryuu knows the place well, but doesn't normally let himself react to its whispers.
Relationships: Judal | Judar/Ren Hakuryuu
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	up a rocky hill

Hakuryuu had wiped the leaves off the stair way, as well as watered the flowers and set the little idols in a neat row in the main room of the temple. He had set the little offerings baked by his sister in front of each and filled the cups with the precious, traditional alcohol of this region. After checking out his work and being content with the results, he picked up his basket and made his way up the steep, rocky hill.

This place was filled with spiritual activity. Little was known of what had originally caused it, but for some reason, there were believed to be a lot of gods and spirits around. That’s why the temple held rituals for so many gods. Of course, something like this was a matter of faith, but Hakuryuu had no doubt about the validity of the old stories. When you had lived your whole life in a place where the spiritual powers were so condensed, there was no way you hadn’t experienced your fair share of strange occurrences.

The Ren family had run the temple here for centuries. Hakuryuu was too young to have ever met his grandfather, who used to be the head of the family before the position went to Hakuryuu’s father, Hakutoku Ren. However, around 12 years ago when Hakuryuu was only six years old, his father had suffered a strange fate in the middle of the night. In the beginning of June, while preparing cleansings for the upcoming summer solstice rituals as was the tradition, something had gone wrong in the main house, and Hakutoku was found dead in the morning. There were no wounds or signs of violence, so it was initially thought of having been a medical issue, but that opinion had quickly changed.

It was Hakuryuu’s older brothers, Hakuyuu and Hakuren, who had been especially suspicious of what had happened to their father, and they didn’t believe in any natural cause of death. Only a week later, they had both been killed by the soul-draining disease. Well, it wasn’t any real scientific disease, but a term used by the priests to refer to a situation where contact with spiritual object causes the contactor to drop dead.

So needless to say, Hakuryuu was a believer.

Because Hakuei and Hakuryuu had been too young, the new head of the temple was chosen to be their mother, Gyokuen Ren. She wasn’t the head of the family – that position had gone to Hakutoku’s brother Koutoku. But Koutoku and his family were too worldly to take care of a temple. Not that they were even interested.

Having climbed up the hill with the contents of his basket still intact, Hakuryuu made his way through a gateway. These gates marked the entrance to a place where the gods had just a bit stronger hold of the physical realm than usual. If you meddled with unknown forces in these spaces, you might not have made it out alive. Hakuryuu glanced at the beautiful rock paintings he had seen countless times before when coming up here. They depicted a battle between the forces of light and dark.

This religion was quite dualistic in nature. They believed that there were two main gods, a good one and an evil one. None really knew the names of these entities; every region had their own variants. To Hakuryuu, the evil god was known as Arba, and the good one as Shlomo. Although, there was a school of thought that argued that the good god was actually an entity called Uraltugo Noi… Nueph or something. Hakuryuu wasn’t an expert.

In addition to these two, there were numerous minor gods, 72 to be specific. They were all good and served the good god. There was, however, one more layer of divine beings between these two. The three gods – magis – created by Shlomo to guide the 72 minor gods and how they interacted with the human world. If the knowledge about the other ones had been a bit vague, it was nothing compared to the confusing retellings of these three gods. They appeared in different times and regions as completely different beings, with completely different names. Still, one thing was certain. One of these magis had betrayed the good god and joined the evil one.

There was a reason why this other temple on top of the hill was so difficult to get to. It was hidden, information of its existence kept in small circles, and entry forbidden from unauthorized personnel. It was a cursed place where no-one should step in for any other purpose but to cleanse its evil energy. One of Hakuryuu’s great-grandmothers had, once upon a time, imprisoned the fallen magi in a small box right in this very place. Now, the container was kept here. The magis were powerful enough that even imprisoned, its power was oozing into the container’s surroundings. But as long as someone kept coming here to cleanse the area regularly, the magi could not leave this temple-site.

Hakuryuu set his basket down on the ground and took out ritual items. He whisked salt around the entrance to the temple, believed to block the way for anything malicious. Barely a minute had passed after he had arrived, when he already felt something looming behind and over him. It leaned on Hakuryuu’s shoulders and back and whispered words straight inside of his head.

_“It is lovely to see you again”_ , the smug message made its way to Hakuryuu’s brain with no words spoken out loud. Hakuryuu could feel something draping around his neck and if he didn’t know better, he would’ve been afraid of getting choked. However, nothing here could harm him physically.

Emphasis on the word physically. There was not a single person who had been the caretaker of this place and hadn’t become mentally unhinged eventually. Still, someone had to do it.

Hakuryuu ignored any voices and kept doing his routine.

After painting the doorposts red with barley ears and covering the heads and eyes of the statues with new pieces of cloth, Hakuryuu packed up his things and turned to leave. The whole process had barely taken ten minutes as usual.

At the doorway, something tried to tug at his arm and make him stop.

_“Are you leaving already?”_

Hakuryuu kept walking.

_“Stay a bit longer”,_ the voice sounded almost disappointed.

Could gods feel lonely? Hakuryuu had never asked one. Nor was he planning on asking now. He would’ve made the snarky remark of seeing again next Sunday if only he wasn’t aware of what kind of power the god would get over him if he actually acknowledged its existence.

Out the gate he went and down the hill, and the suffocating presence that had followed behind his every step so far didn’t go past the gate and instead stayed staring at him from there as long as Hakuryuu was visible like an abandoned cat.

It hadn’t been Hakuryuu’s plan to discover anything. He was only going to check the books for the correct symbols for the talismans and that was it. In candlelight, he turned from one page to another, table covered in different books from different time periods. Until suddenly he noticed – the supposed symbol of his late ancestor who had imprisoned the evil magi seemed eerily familiar. A quick trip to the storehouse and his suspicions were confirmed: it was that very same symbol that had been burned into Hakuyuu and Hakuren’s clothes in the moment of their deaths. Hakuryuu felt confused. There was no way their deceased great-grandmother from behind dozens of generations could have done anything to his brothers.

In the dead of the night, Hakuryuu snuck his way out and up towards the hill. He just had to check for himself. When he made his way past the gate, no-one was there. No feeling or presence. It was a Thursday night; Hakuryuu supposed the temple’s prisoner had learned when to expect visitors. Now was not such a time.

Hakuryuu marched straight inside the temple, and with pained efforts unsealed the door to the forbidden room that _no one_ , regardless of position, was ever allowed to step inside. The place was dusty and dirty beyond belief, but coughing didn’t stop Hakuryuu from making his way to the back of the room. There was a mirror on the back of the wall and in front of it, a small cabinet. It was decorated with talismans and blessed objects to keep the evil locked up inside. Hakuryuu pushed all of them out of the way and opened the small door and took out the little box. And indeed: the symbol on it was the same as in his brothers' clothes. Hakuryuu only sat there on his knees, staring at the box in disbelief.

For a moment he had forgotten that what he held in his hands was practically the pulled-out heart of a god that had ridden across the land spreading war and death for centuries.

The atmosphere suddenly turned heavy. The shadows from the corners of the room closed in on Hakuryuu and surrounded him like prey, and Hakuryuu could sense movement in the mirror that definitely wasn’t from him. He refused to look, however, and kept his eyes fixed on the box.

Nothing more occurred. The fallen magi simply stood there, watching him. Maybe it was simply curious as to what he was planning on doing next and came to look. It was technically its home he had barged into, after all. Hakuryuu stayed silent for a moment.

“Hello?” he eventually said out loud, still refusing to look.

The shadow slid down to the floor to Hakuryuu’s level.

_“Are you going to open it?”_

Hakuryuu’s grip on the box tightened.

“Did you somehow steal my ancestor’s seal? Used its power to attack my brothers as a revenge for being the descendants of the one who captured you here?”

The god was right next to Hakuryuu’s face when he spoke (or whispered, rather), out loud this time, with a man’s voice void of any emotion. _“You know very well I can’t take one step outside of this place.”_

And that was true. Hakuryuu did know it. But something wasn’t right, the situation made no sense.

“Then how is this symbol the same as the spirit’s who removed my brothers’ souls from their bodies?”

_“Obviously, these acts were done by the same person.”_

Obviously yes. But…

“My ancestor couldn’t have hurt my brothers.”

_“Then what is the logical conclusion of that, smart boy?”_ the voice had turned from emotionless to slightly amused.

Hakuryuu whipped his head around in surprise to look towards the direction of the voice… only to see nothing. Slowly, he turned his gaze towards the mirror instead.

It was difficult to see in the dark, but Hakuryuu found himself staring at a pale figure he could see right next to him in the mirror. The god slid its arm over Hakuryuu’s shoulders like they were companions and leaned in.

_“The person who betrayed me by locking me up here… and the one who betrayed you by killing in your family… We have a common enemy.”_ The words slid down smoothly and reached Hakuryuu like small, ringing bells.

“And by saying betrayal, you mean this person is someone we both know personally…”

_“I knew you were smart~”_

Hakuryuu set the box back inside the cabinet.

_“Wait, what are you doing?”_ Mark “surprising a god” on Hakuryuu’s list of achievements.

“I am still a member of a virtuous family. I am not going to let any evil spirits go free.”

'Cracking up' might have been a fitting expression to describe the god’s reaction to that.

“Why do you laugh?” Hakuryuu felt slightly offended.

_“That’s ironic to hear, considering whose son you are.”_

“My father was a good and generous man!”

_“Yeah, but I’m not talking about him.”_

Hakuryuu stayed silent, waiting for an explanation.

_“Someone might argue your origins are way more nefarious than mine you… little demon boy.”_

Hakuryuu stood up in outrage, very annoyed at the fact that he could not reach his insulter physically at all. The magi slowly ascended from the floor level as well.

_“I am sure if you were to compare these seals to your mother’s, you would find some uncomfortable similarities…”_

It was not like Hakuryuu hadn’t had his doubts about his mother, but they were more in the field of, she is trying to creep up the ladder to get her hands on the family money or, something along those lines… She had always been a bit of an uncomfortable person to be around of in the way she was able to dance her way to any results she wanted, but these accusations were something else.

“Are you calling my mother a demon?”

_“No, I am calling her_ the _demon.”_

Surprise made Hakuryuu take a step back, but as much as he wanted to deny this, it wasn’t unbelievable. In fact, it was very believable, and all the evidence and Hakuryuu’s own experiences supported this.

The shadowy figure stepped close to Hakuryuu. _“Pick up the box, hAkUrYuU~”,_ it let out with a sing-song voice. _“Open it and free me, and I will be your partner against her…”_

Hakuryuu glanced towards the mirror and then back to the cabinet. “Isn’t this usually how you trick people into trusting you?”

_“Sure is! …but you don’t need to worry, this time it’s personal. And I like you enough”,_ it tried to convince him, not exactly the most successfully. “ _It’s been so long since I last saw Arba, and the only thing she’s done in the meanwhile is kill your family members from your grandparents to your father and brothers. And don’t think for one second she isn’t coming for you and your sister and all the future Ren offspring as well…”_

If Hakuryuu was to free this god, he’d need to know how to remain the one in control. He went over to the cabinet, lifted the box, faced the empty spot where the mirror showed the creature standing, and opened the lid.

Suddenly all of the shadows slid towards that one spot, concentrating into one and sending the dust in the room flying. Light sparks and sounds of crackling appeared, and it seemed to be growing limbs quite painfully. The darkness turned into inky black, long locks of hair until suddenly, the magic stopped. White hands appeared to move the black hair out of the creature’s face. In that one quick movement, Hakuryuu felt his head spinning and nausea building as he found himself staring into the shining red eyes of the evil god in front of him.

Then the magi tossed the hair out of the way over its shoulder and smirked. “Hello!”

Hakuryuu made his way down the hill with the magi – Judar, as it told Hakuryuu to say – floating right behind. It (or rather he?) – he was happily munching the peaches Hakuryuu had given to him, which gave Hakuryuu confidence in his plan. Since there was no way a god would need to physically eat to survive, Hakuryuu theorized that they might be feeding off the actions of being offered to instead. A sacrifice, a prayer or an offering – to a god it made no difference. It was the action that counted. And those gods would become dependent on pleasing the humans that fed them.

Now, Hakuryuu had no doubts that Judar was able to survive even if he offed Hakuryuu and left. But he had been nothing but loyal from the second his physical form entered this side of the dimensions. If Hakuryuu’s theory was correct, Judar had grown fond of Hakuryuu who had shown up every week to throw salt, grain and rags all over his temple. No reason to try and make sense of god logic.

It was all just fine to Hakuryuu. If he had the power of a god he could control on his side, there was no way he would let an evil entity plague his family or these sacred lands any longer.

**Author's Note:**

> these feels more like a prequel or a pilot to a story and honestly i kind of want to write another chapter. a sillier and more shippy one. no promises though.


End file.
